Officials introduced the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan on Feb. 2 in an attempt to transform the concrete channel of “Terminator” fame into an environmental asset for the city, by building recreational areas in the park-deprived downtown region and alleviating Los Angeles’ water shortage.
The LARRMP is an ambitious proposal, yet the project faces its biggest challenge ahead: gathering funding from a city that puts traffic and public transportation at the top of its tax-dollar priorities.
As presented by the Ad Hoc Committee on the L.A. River, the LARRMP is a $2 billion project that would create an urban-environmental balance over the next 20 to 50 years.
The plan would create parks for green space in the tightly-congested downtown region. And the proposal’s watershed management aspect would minimize the river’s concrete walls while increasing groundwater resources for L.A. residents.
Currently, Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard are in the process of approving federal funding for the L.A. River, but this money is contingent upon matching funds at the state and local level.
And, as critics have been swift to point out, Los Angeles could spend this money on more “practical” matters.
“We could definitely use the money for something like a subway or monorail, since L.A. traffic is so horrid,” Jon Hsiung, a fifth-year English student and Los Angeles resident, said.
A very L.A.-worthy complaint, but it’s time for us to focus on matters that go outside our automotive concerns.
We may be a city that has a high degree of road rage, but ““ according to Jennifer Price, author of LA Weekly’s 2001 “Field Guide to the Los Angeles River” ““ we are also a city that has the least park space per capita, provides only 15 percent of its own water resources, and is home to the country’s most degraded river.
“The river plugs into every major problem L.A. has: ecological problems, health problems, water problems,” Price said.
The L.A. River was channeled in the 1930s after floods destroyed property throughout Southern California. But the single-minded ambition to end flooding destroyed the river’s ecological functions.
“The water is polluted by historical uses upstream,” Keith Stolzenbach, civil and environmental engineering professor, said. “There were a lot of aircraft companies and groundwater pollution that we know about. Also, the L.A. River now carries the flow from two wastewater reclamation plants.”
“It’s really a quality-of-life and public health issue on a number of levels,” Shelley Backlar, executive director of Friends of the Los Angeles River, said. “The plan could provide bike paths, open space and solitude. Many communities along the river don’t have those entities.”
UCLA students should realize the health impacts the LARRMP can implement. Outside of our campus’ fresh-air-and-green-hills bubble, there lies immense potential for a better Los Angeles.
Similar projects have been successfully implemented in Chicago and Chattanooga, Tenn., with significant private funding. Even our neighboring Santa Monica has risen up as an environmental leader by passing the Clean Beaches and Ocean Parcel Tax Act, which uses property-tax dollars for watershed management and environmental restoration.
“(The LARRMP) is about reintroducing nature into a commercial, skyscraper city,” said Sol Eufracio, a first-year undeclared student and L.A. native. Growing up in Los Angeles, Eufracio was concerned that citizens were oblivious to its existence and its environmental impacts.
“At the very least, (the LARRMP) will draw attention to the river, since a lot of people don’t even know that L.A. has one.”
Rant about the river by e-mailing Chung at lchung@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.